Abstract
Chickpea is a cool season, drought hardy grain legume crop that is grown in Asia, East Africa, United States of America and Europe. The crop has the potential to close the winter legume gap because it can adapt to cool season temperatures as compared to summer legumes grown in Zimbabwe. The aim of this paper is to unpack various opportunities for promoting chickpea in drought prone areas of Zimbabwe which might be relevant to other Southern African countries and to understand the major chickpea production requirements in order to merge with the prevailing environmental conditions in Zimbabwe. The crop is affected by abiotic factors and biotic factors; hence chickpea cultivars that could tolerate these factors should be bred and adopted. Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), in cooperation with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in developing countries could help distribute chickpea germplasm to Zimbabwe for research and breeding work since they collectively maintain the world’s largest international collections of plant genetic resources for use by researchers and farmers. Overall chickpea has great potential to enhance protein availability in drought prone areas of Zimbabwe especially during the winter season where no other legume is grown. Key words: Cicer arietinum, Desi, Kabuli.
Highlights
Agriculture is the backbone of Zimbabwe economy for employment, incomes, poverty and hunger reduction
The aim of this review is to discuss various opportunities for promoting chickpea in drought prone areas of Zimbabwe which might be relevant to other Southern African countries and to understand the major chickpea production requirements in order to merge with the prevailing environmental conditions in Zimbabwe
Breeding chickpea resistant to drought should focus on the introduction or exploration of chickpea germplasm through interchange of genetic material, probing areas with greater genetic variation, collaboration with international research institutes such as International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria; International Crops Research Institute for the Semi‐Arid Tropic (ICRISAT), India; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rome, Italy (Maqbool et al, 2017)
Summary
Current status of chickpea production: Opportunities for promoting, adoption and adapting the crop in Zimbabwe: A review. Chickpea is a cool season, drought hardy grain legume crop that is grown in Asia, East Africa, United States of America and Europe. The crop has the potential to close the winter legume gap because it can adapt to cool season temperatures as compared to summer legumes grown in Zimbabwe. The aim of this paper is to unpack various opportunities for promoting chickpea in drought prone areas of Zimbabwe which might be relevant to other Southern African countries and to understand the major chickpea production requirements in order to merge with the prevailing environmental conditions in Zimbabwe. Overall chickpea has great potential to enhance protein availability in drought prone areas of Zimbabwe especially during the winter season where no other legume is grown
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